Photographer Louie Psihoyos

Made famous by his work in National Geographic, Psihoyos also is known for his elaborate photo shoots and for creating images that stand the test of time.

"Iconic" is one of Louie Psihoyos' favorite watchwords. Not to be confused with "ironic," even though he might find that slip of the tongue agreeably appropriate when it comes to some of his more memorable portraits or pictorial vignettes. Pretty much every Psihoyos image, however, is memorable in some way, and many of them have, indeed, become photographic icons since he began his career more than three decades ago.

Psihoyos (drop the "P" and think "sequoias") is among that lucky breed of professionals who have found truth in the maxim, "Do what you love and the money will follow." The 47-year-old photographer lives in Boulder, Colo., and enjoys a thriving income from stock images accumulated through a huge backlog of assignments and visual obsessions over the past three decades.
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Every cell of your body has to be aligned so that you're making the best possible image," he says.

In true Psihoyos fashion, even his early experiences seemed gilded with a little magic. One of his favorite cocktail-party anecdotes is about how he got his photographic education paid for by "Goldfinger." The morning-after version is that his scholarship was actually provided by a wealthy businessman named Joseph Ehrenreich, who dabbled in shady gold investments and also was a major distributor for Nikon. (Ehrenreich reportedly was the real-life inspiration for the title character in Ian Fleming's James Bond classic.)

"You have to give of yourself 200 percent in everything you do; then the right people find you like a beacon."


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